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important reader survey

LYT — Sat, 22 Jan 2011 20:52:00 +0000

Dear readers — for reasons I’m not going to get into just yet, I need to select the very best of some of my Geekweek columns. I would like to hear from you before I do.

I would like you to tell me which are your two favorite FAST FOOD REVIEWS from Geekweek.

I would also like to know what your two favorite Geekweek Movie Reviews (any article whose title begins “LYT REVIEW”) are.

And finally, your two favorite “ill LYTeracy” columns.

Your responses will be MOST helpful. Please leave them in comments.

My Top Ten Movies of 2010

LYT — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 02:54:45 +0000

It wouldn’t be the end of the year without at least one critic bemoaning the state of cinema as worse than ever. In 2010, however, the movie mainstream did seem to produce more misfires than usual, as Hollywood gradually figured out that post-conversion 3-D doesn’t work very well, M. Night Shyamalan shouldn’t be trusted with money, and Gemma Arterton isn’t going to become the next big thing just because you force her on us.

Notably, this year’s best list features more independents and international entries than usual.

On the other hand, if you see enough movies across the spectrum, there will almost always be more than enough for at least a 10 best list. I haven’t seen absolutely everything of significance, but have made a heroic effort to get to most of it—nonetheless, Yogi Bear or Marmaduke could be hidden masterpieces, and I will never know.

Click here for the list: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/b216800_10_best_movies_of_2010mdashan_online.html#ixzz19kSuA1OJ

REVIEWS AD INFINITUM

LYT — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:59:51 +0000

Lotta catching up here. My bad. I hope some readers will have already seen these by following my Twitter, etc., but if not…

BLUE VALENTINE
Blue Valentine caused some controversy with an initial NC-17 rating that has since been successfully appealed following some heavy Weinstein Company lobbying. But here’s the thing: Unfair stigma aside, this isn’t a film for viewers under 17, not so much because of sexual content, but because it takes some life experience to fully appreciate that which is being depicted herein.

GULLIVER’S TRAVELS
Why does Hollywood insist upon “reinventing” classic literature when faithful adaptations would be far more interesting? We’ve seen Eddie Murphy as a modern Dr. Dolittle, and now Jack Black as a contemporary Gulliver…Hell, maybe Tyler Perry should don a dress for a newer, sassier Mary Poppins. It’d be every bit as irrelevant.

WINTER’S BONE
Every year, there is at least one token awards contender that astonishes L.A.-based Academy members by reminding them that country folk and cold weather still exist. Last year it was Frozen River; this year it’s Winter’s Bone. Which is not to diminish either movie in terms of quality, but rather, to imagine that people who live in the environments depicted may not find these kinds of tales especially unique.

SOMEWHERE
Sofia Coppola gives us yet another movie about rich people lounging around opulent surroundings while feeling empty inside. This time, it’s Stephen Dorff as movie star Johnny Marco, staying mostly in Hollywood’s famed Chateau Marmont. As unsympathetic as her characters ought to be, though, damned if the writer-director doesn’t manage to hit on some emotional truths nonetheless.

TRUE GRIT
The Coen brothers’ adaptation of Charles Portis’ satirical western novel is less faithful to actual plot details than the Henry Hathaway film that starred John Wayne, but it gets the tone exactly right. With their love of irony, eccentric language and region-specific tics, the directors are a perfect match for the source material.

TRON: LEGACY
If you can get past its absurd premise, this return of Jeff Bridges to the inner computer world of light-cycles and deadly neon Frisbees is an eye-candyriffic holiday treat, with a killer soundtrack and 3-D visuals worthy of the huge screen.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER
One of the best Narnia books arrives onscreen more significantly altered than its predecessors, and unfortunately, panders a little too much to its perceived audience. It’s still a fun family adventure, but it could have (and should have) been better.

THE WARRIOR’S WAY
It’s unfortunate that Thanksgiving is over already, for this is a giant turkey worth carving. The tale of a ninja who emigrates to an unreal Old West with a rival clan’s baby in tow is a Gigli-level, what-were-they-thinking disaster that may nonetheless find a cult following among lovers of magnificent misfires.

BLACK SWAN
Director Darren Aronofsky’s latest genre-bender may be talked about as awards-bait, but such conversations obscure the fact that Black Swan mostly plays like a full-on horror movie, with more genuinely earned scares than recent releases which wear the genre on their sleeves.

THE NEXT THREE DAYS
When his wife is suddenly arrested and convicted of murder, teacher John Brennan (Russell Crowe) starts planning ways to break her out of jail. So he plans…and plans…and plans some more. Only close to the movie’s end does he actually start putting events in motion, and by then you may have given up on a story that rarely gets straight to the point.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1
Big-budget sequels to kids’ movies don’t get much grimmer than this one, which begins with torture and a scary snake, features the deaths of major characters, constantly reminds us that others are being massacred, and generally has our heroes feeling hopeless about 90 percent of the time.

SKYLINE
The visuals are very cool, and plentiful, save for the brothers’ overuse of cheesy slo-mo. For a movie on a $10 million budget, it delivers more and better bangs for the buck than many blockbusters ten times the price. It’s just a shame they couldn’t find actors who deliver equal efficiency. Or script doctors, for that matter.

UNSTOPPABLE
An unmanned train full of toxic waste is hurtling through the countryside. But fortunately, two railroad workers who look a lot like Malcolm X and the young Captain Kirk are on the case. Director Tony Scott’s almost family-friendly adventure plays like the coolest storyline you ever cooked up as a kid playing with toy trains.

127 HOURS
Trapped under a rock in a canyon, Aron Ralston (James Franco) must cut his own arm off to escape certain death. One half-expects a scary puppet on a tricycle to show up and say, “Hello Aron. I want to play a game,” but instead, director and coscreenwriter Danny Boyle opens up his Slumdog Millionaire bag of tricks to jazz up the visuals with flashbacks, premonitions, overly dramatic soundtrack choices and hallucinations.

FOUR LIONS
It isn’t just Muslim fundamentalists who get mocked here; everyone is fair game, from thick-headed police snipers who argue about the difference between a Wookiee and a bear, to government employees and their elaborate, convoluted explanations of rendition. One could compare this to South Park, but at the risk of hyperbole, this may also be the war on terror’s very own Dr. Strangelove. Also like Strangelove, it gets that reality is often so absurd, you don’t have to exaggerate much for humorous effect and that man frequently laughs so as not to cry.

FAIR GAME
People of opposing political stripes have differing opinions over what went down in the whole Valerie Plame incident. And while Fair Game definitely has a point of view (your first clue should be that it stars Sean Penn), its primary focus is on the effect outside politics can have on a marriage—when to fight back, when to back down for the good of personal harmony are all issues couples face. But when the outside force clamping down is the White House, that’s a whole new level of stress.

SAW 3-D
Though the Saw movies have been tying themselves in knots trying to continue the saga of a central character who died at the end of part III, you know they’ve just about hit rope’s end in this one when our favorite cancer-stricken, psychotic engineer John “Jigsaw” Kramer (Tobin Bell) gets exactly one good scene

Yes, I’ve been lax: More FIRST DOLLAR GROSS shows

LYT — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 07:55:28 +0000

November 29, with Amy Nicholson and Melissa Molina:

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

December 6

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

December 13

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

December 20, with Julia Boyd and “Emily XXX”

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

Next post: catching up on a shit-ton of E! Online reviews. Sorry, readers, it has been a busy coupla months.

My complete AFI Fest 2010 Coverage for Geekweek

LYT — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:47:51 +0000

Why should you still care now that the fest is over? Because many current and future Oscar hopefuls were involved. Here’s the breakdown of blogs; click on the red dates to read:

Nov. 6 - Heartbeats, Blank City, Precious Life, Abel, Nothing’s All Bad, The Housemaid

Nov 6 - The King’s Speech, including description of Q&A with Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, and Tom Hooper

Nov 8 - The Human Resources Manager

Nov 8 - Cargo, Julia’s Eyes, Norwegian Ninja

Nov 9 - Blue Valentine

Nov 10 - Rear Window, The Fighter

Nov 17 - Hahaha, Chico and Rita, Shorts Program 1, Littlerock, Outrage, Submarino, The Myth of the American Sleepover, Morgen, The Company Men, Black Swan

Some FIRST DOLLAR GROSS archived shows…

LYT — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 22:35:31 +0000

Be sure to watch LIVE every Monday at 4 p.m. California time.

Nov 22 (part 1)

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

Nov 22 (part 2)

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

Nov 15 (the episode where Jen falls out of her chair)

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

Nov 1st:

Watch live video from GeekWeek on Justin.tv

FIRST DOLLAR GROSS web show: 10-25-10

LYT — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:11:20 +0000

Watch live video from geekweek on Justin.tv

Yesterday’s FIRST DOLLAR GROSS show

LYT — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 08:19:58 +0000

Watch live video from geekweek on Justin.tv

E! Reviews: Jackass 3D, My Soul To Take

LYT — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 04:26:31 +0000

MY SOUL TO TAKE:

“After seemingly selling off the remake rights to every movie he’s ever made, Wes Craven (A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Hills Have Eyes) has taken the money and, with the freedom to create an all-new tale of terror and release it with an R-rating, he made this? A derivative day-trip to dullsville? D’oh!”

JACKASS 3D:

“Now more of a memory-lane trip than the anarchic shocker it used to be, Jackass celebrates its tenth anniversary with a new collection of the usual gleefully idiotic antics, augmented at times with 3-D.

The effect is like seeing that punk-rock band you used to adore moshing to in small clubs, now doing a big-arena reunion show with fireworks.”
Read more: http://www.eonline.com/uberblog/movie_reviews/b205876_movie_review_jackass_3d_stupid.html#ixzz12m9CUciu

Introducing FIRST DOLLAR GROSS

LYT — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 06:03:41 +0000

This all-new web series for Geekweek — featuring me, Todd Gilchrist, Damon Houx, and Jen Yamato — will air online live, most Mondays at 4pm Pacific Time. You can watch live at http://www.justin.tv/geekweek. But today’s episode is embedded below, if you missed it.